If I said I was from Haiti, where we give French, African, Native American, and Spanish food our own West Indian flavor, would you know where I’m from? Haiti’s bakeries are filled with pastries, breads, and candy. One of our specialties are Haitian pâté (patty). We make our patties out of beef, chicken, smoked herring or codfish. If you want to use something else in the pâté you can. Pâté varies in smell and taste. In the stores the dough is usually store brought but the filling is made by them. When I make pâtés I start by making puff pastry dough from scratch. It is time consuming and requires a lot of patience. The first time I made it, it was a disaster, the butter was seeping through the dough but it still tasted good. The third time I made it, all of the butter stayed in the dough and it was near perfect. My mom help me make ground meat or herring to put into the pâté. The whole house smells like butter and bread. When it is done it is very flaky and has a lot of layers. When you eat it layer by layer it is layers of a light buttery taste and the meat has a delicious fresh spice to it. Eat it together and its love at first bite. Everyone that I gave this to loved it and was addicted to it.
